For all you Mothers out there.

This one is just a bit nostalgic, how many of us have time for all those chores with WORK???

Off to Victrorian London to see the Churches

Well didn't Rupert get a surprise when he went off on the thrain the other day. Here is the story, hope you like it!!!

Rupert and the Poetry Book

This week my life has been taken over by a ton + of chicken manure. My veg plot needs a constant supply of this stuff so i have been loading/unloading a trailer all week. How many forkfuls in a ton? A lot I can tell you. I am pooped literally.

So no energy for the planned large canvases! Instead i am ongoing with more Rupert. This time I had a school poetry book (1958) and have combined suitable images from a 1970's Rupert annual to compliment the poems. These are 6x4, postcard size mounts.

I am having great fun doing these, it takes me back to my childhood, when I used to read my books under the covers, lit by a torch. Any one else do that? The last one is one of my favourites, take some time out for yourself.

The Story Book Chums

Next re-hashed Rupert and chums. Its just laid out and not stuck down. I've included characters from 1940's to 1970's. You can make up your own narrative.... Toby Algy and Bill tell Rupert, "Look Tiger Tim has made a cake!". Aladin conjures up a dragon. You get the idea?

Rupert Out of His Annual

This weekend I have been working on a collage of Rupert images. Well since Friday really, but that's nearly the weekend.

Any way I thought Rupert would like to get out of his annual, which is terribly worse for wear. So I chopped and cut and worked the images into a story which follows the book as near as possible. You can't use all the images as they back onto each other. So it takes a while to decide what shows the story, what is the best image and which images backing onto each other are best.

This is another of my bargain buys from my artist acquaintance. This time the mounts were 7 for £2. I hope you like this, its all hand cut and any inaccuracies add to the overall thing. Paper used for backing is from Every Crafts a Pound, great bargains there. Check out their web site.

Mosaic Absrtacts

To learn about colour, line and all the paint and mediums I use I often do a series of experimental paintings. Often these will hang around my house whilst I decide what works, what is a waste of space and sometimes one or two are good enough to mount.

Well as I am quite productive these build up to quite a heap. So not liking waste and believing in things coming your a for a purpose, that is to set you on a new challenge. After attending a boot fair and meeting a fellow artist I am now the proud owner of 120 pre-cut mounts. So experimental paintings and mounts are now Mosaic Absrtacts!!!

I have already done something similar at my Have Fun With Acrylic course. So the first two contain others paintings. But the last three are all my work. I am also working on another series of collages of vintage Rupert. Again these are mounts I bought from the boot fair. 

Finished What's Love got to do with it?

This is the finished and varnished picture. For once I am happy with the result!

So proud of my little dog Molly

Just been over to my friend Carols. She has lambs and we let them out to play. My dog Molly has never met lambs before, so she now is my star girl. These lambs are boinging all over the place, coming right up nose to nose and she has not chased them at all.

This is such good news as when I first got her she chased everything, with a view to a kill too, so re-training does work!!

What's Love got to do with it?

Another piece I am working on 24x24 on hardboard.

!st stage is to prime with Gerstacker primer, its a new one and I find it very good and very waterproof. Then a layer of polyfiller, with stamps and various media attached. I had no idea what was going on with this work, so just went with it.

Next leave to dry. Then more primer. then make sure all is stuck don and leave to dry.

Board has warped a bit but it flexes without breaking the top materials so its ok to continue. Framer is going to have fun with this one.

Now I am throwing some paint at it and cooking this with the heat gun. Set off the house fire alarms twice, so exited to the garden!!!! Colours used, Pthalo turquoise, some very vivid cheap (the works) yellow, copper and gold. Looking good so far. Now I want to lighten the background with some white. Then it will get some bitumen which will change the colours. After this I will overpaint more acrylics.

New Paintings.

Well I am trying to get out of my sock phase. I have a 3rd pair for stock on the go, but I am now painting again.

Here are the latest two paintings.

Green Sunday - corny its got green in and was painted on a Sunday - this one is just not taking a good photo, so looks a bit flat colour wise.

Blue Autumn - say what you see is my new motto.

A couple of close-ups so you can see some details.

I have another on the go, which is mixed media, so far its got polyfiller, those net bags from oranges, wool and eggshell. Now I am having fun throwing some paint about.

Dickens ATC's

I have a few online arty friends and we are swapping 5x7 ATC's. I have been experimenting with image transfer, using Berol Marvin Medium. These have worked quite well but need patience and if you wet them too much they get sticky on the front side. So I had several failures.

Method is to photocopy the original design, then paint the Marvin Medium on the front. Two coats were needed, with 2 days drying time between coats. Then another two days to cure. You then wet the back of the image and rub off the paper. You are left with a transparent image, sometimes better than others.

These are the ATC's I made using pages from Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, published by Chapman Hall, published 1886 (the book is in very poor condition so I felt it was ok to break it up). Images stuck on with Atelier Binder medium. Top coat Gloden Tar Gel and I used acrylic paints. The cut out flowers from the paper have also been stuck on in some of the images. Two paintings have been cut up, both on 140lb water colour paper.